Tempo of the Late Ordovician Mass Extinction Controlled by the Rate of Climate Change

The Late Ordovician mass extinction (LOME) included two phases (I and II) of high species turnover that have been hypothetically linked to the Hirnantian glaciation and subsequent rapid warming, respectively. However, the timing and tempo of the LOME remain uncertain, which hinders our understanding of the feedback between the LOME and paleoclimatic change. Here we present high-precision radio-isotopic dates for the Ordovician–Silurian transition in South China that constrain the onset timing of the LOME and the durations of its two phases. The results suggest that the rapid switch from icehouse to greenhouse conditions, along with the higher mean rate of temperature change during LOME II, resulted in a much higher mean extinction rate during LOME II than I, implying that the rate of climate change was a primary control on the tempo of the LOME.